


let your heart hold fast

by aprincessofdaxam



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-23
Updated: 2019-01-23
Packaged: 2019-10-14 20:05:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,182
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17515133
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aprincessofdaxam/pseuds/aprincessofdaxam
Summary: Kara turns to the only person she knows who understands how deep the bonds of sisterhood go. Spoilers for 4x10.





	let your heart hold fast

He's always been a bit of an insomniac, so he's doing what he always does in the middle of the night, lying in his quarters reading, when he hears the monitor beep to life in the common command area. He throws the dog-eared book down on his table and rushes down the corridor.   
  
Winn has been working on technology to better identify time disruptions in space like the ones they have traveled to, and to trace whatever, or _who_ ever, is coming out of them. It's not only for their benefit to prevent side trips like the one that dropped the Legion 12,000 years in the past, and to get Winn (and, perhaps, ... ) back to the 21st century eventually, but to stay one step ahead of an enemy with a high intellect and no moral codes regarding time and space. They haven't been sure if it will actually work - they haven't had a chance to test it until now, when he's watching a signal on the monitor streaking out of the disruption like a shooting star. He turns all his senses on high alert toward that spot in the heavens, above the city. But before he can shout for Winn or the others, he hears -    
  
 _Her heartbeat._   
  
Perhaps she locates Legion headquarters the same way, because he's barely taken three strides across the room and thrown the window open before she whooshes in, stumbling a step to find her balance. All the questions about to bubble out of his mouth - _You're here! Why are you here? How did you know how to use the ring? What does this mean?_ \- dry up in an instant as he sees her face before she throws herself at him in a desperate hug.   
  
He knows what Kara looks like when she's grieving - her eyes shone insanely blue as she leaned over the bed where he was dying before their first kiss, when she was curled on the couch after Jeremiah's betrayal, as she was waving goodbye in the rain, when she was introduced to Imra.

And right now, her eyes are bluer than he's ever seen them.   
  
"Kara?"   
  
"I need Imra," she whispers, grabbing his arms desperately. "I need to talk to Imra."   
  
"Okay. Stay right here." Heeding her desperation, he doesn't ask questions, giving her shoulders a brief squeeze before hurrying back down the hallway. He checks himself as he opens the door to Imra's room, reminding himself not to startle her awake. Imra blinks awake, and whether she sees the fear on his face or feels it first, she's throwing the blankets back to leap out of bed.   
  
"Kara's here. She says she needs you."   
  
Kara is standing where he left her, her arms crossed tightly around herself and swaying on the spot as though she's trying to stay upright. She locks eyes with Imra, and his heart twists painfully in his chest as he watches the dam she's been holding together visibly shatter.   
  
"It's Alex and it's my fault."   
  
He's never felt more helpless in his life as he stands there and watches Imra rush across the room to pull Kara into her arms, her own eyes filling with tears the minute they make contact. How Imra remains upright as she holds Kara tight while the blonde chokes out the whole story about Colonel Haley, the Vertullarian, and Alex's sacrifice, he will never know. He can feel Kara's grief rolling off her in waves, and he doesn't have Imra's empathically-rooted powers, which intensify with physical contact.   
  
But somehow, because the girl from Krypton needs her, the girl from Titan remains steadfast and soothing.   
  
They retreat to Imra's quarters, leaving him to pace the floor and wonder - could they have done something? Is there something they missed? There's nothing in his knowledge of Kara's life - he had been voracious for information upon becoming stuck in the 31st century - to suggest this had happened. He'd looked again for more information after his return, after they'd eliminated Pestilence, and thus the Blight, and thus the extinction event that had erased so many records.    
  
Maybe if they'd found another way to stop the Blight. Maybe if Reign hadn't absorbed the powers of the other Worldkillers, leading to M'yrnn's sacrifice of self. Maybe J'onn wouldn't have stepped away from the DEO, leaving Alex so responsible.   
  
Maybe if he'd done more to stop the threat his mother posed to National City, and to be a leader to what was left of his people. Maybe the anti-alien sentiment wouldn't have risen as strongly, leading to suspicion of Supergirl's secret identity.   
  
Or maybe this was all just destined to happen. Because being a hero and love, those are not easy things. And no one loves Kara more than Alex Danvers, who has always been there to be her hero.   
  
As dawn begins to light the sky, he decides to wake Winn, and quietly tell him what has happened. He'll want his own chance to grieve for Alex and Kara - when Kara is ready - and she shouldn't have to tell that story again. They'll find a way to keep headquarters as quiet as it ever is today, and to explain Kara's presence to the rest of the Legionnaires later.   
  
As he moves back down the hallway, he can't help hearing Kara's voice, still choked with tears, from beyond Imra's door, which has been left ajar.   
  
"All I do is hurt the people I love. They either get blackmailed and taken hostage by Cadmus, or have to flee Earth because of lead poisoning, or have their memory erased."   
  
Before he can break the promise he's made to himself to give them space and interrupt to tell her she's _wrong_ , so wrong -   
  
"You are worth it, Kara. I am here because of you." Imra's voice is gentle, soothing, but absolute in its certainty.   
  
"I'll have to lie to her every day. And someday, she'll find out, and she'll hate me for it."   
  
"Preya was very angry when she learned what I'd done," Imra says. "Risking my life, and my marriage, for her. But I wouldn't change a thing. It was worth it. And Alex believes that of her sacrifice to protect you, too. And someday, she will understand when you lie to protect _her_. When you have a sister, protecting her is in your DNA."   
  
Kara lets out a sob at that and huddles her blonde head closer on Imra's shoulder, tucked under the arm keeping her grounded. Imra looks up and meets his eyes, knowing he's been hovering at the doorway for the last of the conversation, and gives him a sad smile through her own teary eyes. He nods back at her, swallowing back the tears in his own throat, remembering their own conversations about lies and about trust to get back here where they started - to being best friends.   
  
And in this moment, there is no one he trusts more. Because one of the only people he's ever loved in his strange life is the only one who can comfort the other one. Silently, he eases the door fully closed.   
  



End file.
